Review: “The Intolerance of Tolerance”

The central premise of this book is that a true and proper tolerance defends both the right of others to hold views other than one’s own together with one’s own right to challenge those views. However, tolerance as commonly understood has come to mean the conviction – strongly held in the name of tolerance – that any strongly-held convictions which cut across the convictions of others are intolerable. In the course of this book, these straightforward and easily observable propositions are beaten rather thin and embossed with some intricacy. The reason for this may be that the material has its origin in an academic environment. Along the way, some useful points are made, including cogent warnings concerning the tyranny of democracy and the subtle progress of this intolerant tolerance, particularly as Christianity – with its exclusive claims – comes under increasing fire in the West. At this point, perhaps, a treatment of the natural man’s incapacity for and antagonism to the truth might have been enlightening. Carson closes with ten counsels, in the course of which he urges Christians to demonstrate true tolerance in their engagements with one another and with the world at large, while exposing the new and flawed tolerance for the dangerous nonsense it is. Not a groundbreaking analysis, but a useful one for those engaging with the issues, especially in the more public intellectual sphere.